The Observation Deck

Please read this article on page 9 of the current Observer. Harry Manos and Rodgers Gerhardt do a great job with our middle school athletes, along with the coaches and the rest of the staff. Our kids are fit, mentored, and academically driven. Championships are great (see Harding Team Caps Perfect Season With Championship on page 1), however there is even greater, broader benefit.

All our extra curricular programs, including music and orchestra (see Two LHS Musicians Selected For National Honor Orchestra on page are great academic assets. Add to that our art program (see LHS Students' Work To Hang In Governor's Youth Art Exhibit on page 10) and others too numerous to mention here. All are proven to promote academic success.

Many moons ago...In college I did my Senoir Thesis for my Psychology degree (not in conjunction with my English degree) on a very similar study. I studied the effects of a student athlete's GPA on playing time in our school's varsity athletics (Wittenberg University). As it turned out, those who played the most during season had the highest GPAs on the team (ex: starters had higher GPAs than second string players). A lot of the results were based around time management and knowing that in order to play you must remain academically eligible. My study found that these were study habits instilled young in life, whereas those who were exposed to good study habits at an early age exhibited them throughout their schooling.
...and then a dinosaur ate my paper

Corey